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Careers Special foreword

Published: 21 January 2015
By Sherilyn Shackell

Ever got to the end of the day feeling that you didn’t actually achieve much? Now imagine getting to the end of 2015 and feeling the same way about the whole year. A new year’s resolution to find your dream job is a hard one to keep, and relies on more than just your desires.

The main thing that makes it challenging is that the world – and marketing – moves at hyper-speed. The role of the marketer is growing, constantly changing, moving into broader business functions and finally beginning to take its rightful place in boardrooms. What is in place today will be displaced tomorrow, which isn’t helpful for goal-setting.

So how do you make sure 2015 moves you forward in your career? Here are a few ways.

Commit to learning something new and aim to broaden your skill set. Who can hold back a specialist with a broader outlook or a generalist with a few core areas of expertise?

Deepen your relationships with other functions. As marketing increases its impact across a business, your understanding of how it all works is key and relationships with peers are vital if you are to be successful at influencing them.

Share your knowledge. There is no more important thing you can do in your career than developing others. You will be astounded at how much you will receive in return.

These are small things, but how satisfying it would be at the end of 2015 to reflect on how much you learned, what changes you influenced and how many people your actions had a positive impact on.

I’ll tell you one thing: it’ll be a lot more fun than giving up drinking.